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Sharewatch: Elan

Elan reports its fourth quarter and final year results this week with much of its thunder already stolen by Biogen, its partner on the multiple sclerosis drug Tysabri.

Biogen last week reported an 8% rise in fourth-quarter revenues for the drug to $163m (€119m) and a 12% rise in patient numbers over the year to 71,800. The revenues beat Davy forecasts by 3%, but the broker noted a deceleration of patients on the drug in the final quarter. Biogen described the growth as a “nice steady march”, with physicians’ confidence growing in the drug.

Following the spin-off of its blue sky research pipeline into Prothena, a new company, Elan is likely to be heavily reliant on Tysabri performance for some time. Davy has forecast Elan will post full-year revenues of $1.19bn for 2012 and earnings of $200m when first half Prothena losses are stripped out.